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Regional Operations Centre (ROC)

The Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) Regional Operations Centre (ROC), Pacific Region, is located at the CCG Base at 25 Huron Street in Victoria. The staff at the ROC facilitate the overall scheduling & co-ordination of the Canadian Coast Guard Pacific Region Fleet, to ensure of the best use of the available resources for regular program delivery, as well as during "emergency situations". The fleet includes 7 ships, 7 cutters, 6 helicopters, 1 airplane and 10 Coast Guard station boats working various locations along the West Coast of British Columbia.

The ROC maintains different systems to allow for proper scheduling & tracking of ships' activities and to ensure assigned tasks are completed. The mandate of the ROC is met by 5 separate functions, namely:

Preparation of the annual ROC ship's schedules and updates. This schedule shows the time allowed to carry out various type of work requested by the department's programs. These are;

Search and Rescue (SAR)

Marine Navigational Services (MNS)

Ocean and Research Sciences

Fisheries Conservation and Management

Environmental Response

Navigational Waters Protection

Icebreaking and escort in Western Arctic

Boating Safety

Atmospheric and Environment Services for Environment Canada

As well, a wide variety of other government departments are supported in their "sea going" work, including RCMP, Parks Canada and Immigration Canada, and assistance to Universities.

Sailing Instructions for the Commanding Officers are prepared for all ships, cutters and shore based stations for a 28 day patrol. Sailing instructions include details of the area of operations, the time allocated for SAR Zone Coverage and also all the descriptions of all work requested, called taskings, during the patrol.

Any additional requests received are tasked to the appropriate resource each day.

Staff at the ROC are also responsible for capturing information and maintaining statistics on the work accomplished during a ship's patrol. These statistics may include the number of fisheries violations, courtesy exams, the distance covered and fuel consumed during the patrol, as well as a detailed electronic report on the actual amount of time spent in support of each program.

In the event of a major disaster, the ROC serves as the Emergency Operations Centre and is the single point of contact for Provincial Emergency Programs (PEP), who have the lead role in the disaster response.

The ROC also serves as an information source for staff within the Pacific Region, as well as Headquarters, and the general public. The requests are forwarded to the appropriate branch of Fisheries and Oceans Canada or external department.

The Regional Operations Centre hours are from 07:00 - 18:30 7 days per week. At least one operations officer is on duty during this time. After hours all telephone calls are forwarded to the Marine Information Centre located at the Marine Communications and Traffic Services Centre in Vancouver, providing a 24 hour coverage.